2009
This is a timeline of events that occurred in 2009. 2009 January 30th * Tony Stark demonstrates his new Accelerated Wave Explosion (A.W.E.) weaponry to the United States Armed Forces at the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. * Later that evening, Stark and James Rhodes go to a club. Stark's arrogant, playboy attitude upsets another patron, resulting in a brawl. February 11th * Tony Stark wins the Apogee award, but is not present to accept it. Instead, he is gambling. * Stark is approached by Vanity Fair reporter Christine Everhart, and gives witty responses to her questions. He convinces her to spend the night with him, and takes her back to his mansion. * Stark and Everhart sleep together. 12th * Pepper Potts gets rid of Christine Everhart from Tony Stark's Mansion after Everhart's one-night stand. Potts informs Tony Stark that today is her birthday. 13th * Kidnapping of Tony Stark: ** Following the demonstration of the Jericho missile system outside of Kabul, Afghanistan, the military convoy escorting Tony Stark is attacked by the Ten Rings, under the leadership of Raza, who is secretly working for Obadiah Stane. ** Stark is wounded by Stark Industries-manufactured weapons and captured. ** Fellow captive Ho Yinsen saves his life by attaching an electromagnet to his chest. Raza orders them to build a Jericho missile, but they instead build a battle suit powered by a miniature Arc Reactor. 14th * Nick Fury sends Phil Coulson to Stark's business partner Obadiah Stane to investigate the possibility of Tony Stark selling his country to save his own skin. * Coulson meets with Obadiah Stane. * Coulson returns with the negative reply, and offers to go searching for Stark himself. However, Fury refuses the offer. March 1st * R. Giyera enlists as a security specialist in the Maryland branch of Endotex Labs. 2nd * The U.S. military scans northeast Africa for Bruce Banner. 6th * Aldrich Killian injects himself with Extremis, which heals his disabilities and enables him to walk without a cane. 9th * Natasha Romanoff is given the task of escorting a nuclear scientist out of Iran. The Winter Soldier attacks them in Odessa, Ukraine, firing a bullet which goes through Romanoff's abdomen and hits the scientist, successfully killing him. May 1st * During their 3 months of capture, Tony Stark and Ho Yinsen finish the armored suit they have been creating. Stark uses it to escape, but Yinsen is killed by the Ten Rings while saving him. * The flight of Iron Man ends up on the radar of S.H.I.E.L.D., Jasper Sitwell notifies Nick Fury about the signal which gets lost when Iron Man crashes in the desert. Being it the first lead to find Stark, they notify the United States Department of Defence. * Stark is later found by the United States Armed Forces and taken to Germany, where he is checked out by army doctors and subjected to debriefings from the CIA, NSA, and others. 3rd * Returning to the U.S. and deeply affected by his experience, Tony Stark pulls Stark Industries out of the weapons business, terminating all military contracts. Hammer Industries maneuvers itself to pick up new contracts. * Stark reveals to Obadiah Stane the Arc Reactor technology he developed to power the armor. S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson attempts to schedule a meeting through Stark's personal assistant Pepper Potts to discuss the circumstances of Stark's escape. 4th * Potts grimaces as she watches online videos mocking Stark's change in business plan, when she gets a call to go downstairs and help Stark. He asks her help in replacing his electromagnet with a newer arc reactor, and she squeamishly helps him with the operation, nearly causing him a cardiac arrest from a mistake she makes, but ultimately succeeding in the procedure. Stark then tells her to simply dispose of the old reactor, but she decides otherwise. 18th * A fortnight after his return, and with his injuries healed, Tony Stark visits James Rhodes as he talks to air force recruits in a hangar. He explains to Rhodes that he is considering starting a whole new project for enforcing peace. 20th * Colleen Wing comes to the United States of America, leaving her grandfather's home in Japan. She goes on to meet Bakuto at the Hand Compound and be recruited into The Hand. 26th * Stark opens a file for his new design project, the "Mark II". June 20th * Aldrich Killian finds candidates for his Extremis program, including Ellen Brandt, Chad Davis, Eric Savin, and Jack Taggart, all of whom were in the United States Army and suffered serious injuries. 24th * Several weeks after Stark's escape, the Ten Rings find the armor he used to escape, left in pieces in the desert. 25th * Aldrich Killian starts the Phase 0 of Extremis Injections. The candidates are given Extremis. Some of them do not survive, and their bodies explode. The successful subjects heal from their injuries and regrow lost limbs. July 20th * Cassie Lang is born to Scott and Maggie Lang. 23rd * Stark continues to work on his new armor, putting together the legs of the suit. August 6th * Tony Stark begins his log of tests for the new suit of armor, beginning "Day 1", first testing the flight capabilities. However, he underestimates the power of the thrusters, and flies up and backwards into the wall behind him. 9th * Imir kidnaps several Dwarves and threatens to take over Asgard. He battles Thor, who defeats him by electrocuting him into submission. * Stark continues to work on improving his suit. 13th * While he works on the arms of the new armor, Stark is interrupted when Pepper Potts visits with a gift for him. He does not notice that it is his old arc reactor, put in a case, and marked with the text, "Proof that Tony Stark has a heart." * Stark goes upstairs to see Obadiah Stane, and they discuss the dramatic drop in Stark Industries stock following Stark's change of heart in the business' motivations. 16th * On "Day 11" of tests, Stark tries again with the flight capabilities. He manages to control the flight better, and is excited by his progress. Stark then spends the following months working on all the other parts of the armor. October 11th * Damon Boone begins to speak out against Mariah Dillard's campaigns in Harlem. November 5th * After eventually heading to South America, Bruce Banner starts to look for vascular plants that could inhibit radiation and therefore, find the key to cure his condition. He has another incident turning into the Hulk, his final incident for 6 months. 6th * As the U.S. military follows the new lead on Banner, tracing from Africa to South America, Banner travels to Rio de Janeiro. 8th * Banner contacts Samuel Sterns for help in developing a cure. They communicate using code-names of "Mr. Blue" and "Mr. Green". Acting on a suggestion from Mr. Blue, Banner researches Amazonia Tracheophytes for a lead on the cure. 11th * General Thaddeus Ross looks through the evidence from the Chase of Bruce Banner. * Banner studies calming techniques at a nearby temple, gets a job at a soda bottling factory, and begins to teach himself Portuguese. 15th * Stark starts a new log about his armors, beginning a new "Day 1". He recounts his escape from Afghanistan, before beginning his first test of the newly-completed Mark II armor. * Tony Stark flies the Mark II armor using newly fitted flight stabilizers, but discovers an icing problem. 16th * Stark analyzes more data and decides to rebuild his suit using gold titanium from an old project to solve the icing problem. He also instructs J.A.R.V.I.S. to add "hot-rod red" paint trimming to the next suit, code-named "Mark III". * Stark leaves his mansion to attend the third annual benefit dinner for the Fire-Fighters Family Fund while the new suit is being assembled and painted. * At the charity event, Phil Coulson approaches Stark and books an appointment for the 24th to discuss his escape from the Ten Rings. Stark dances with Pepper Potts, and they share a moment together in the moonlight. * Christine Everhart, the reporter Stark slept with prior to leaving for Afghanistan, shows him photographs of his weapons being used by a terrorist group the previous day in the Afghan town of Gulmira, Ho Yinsen's home village. * Stark confronts Obadiah Stane, who reveals that he has filed an injunction against him. 17th * Battle of Gulmira: Stark tests his Mark III armor by flying to Afghanistan and forcing the Ten Rings out of Gulmira. * As Iron Man escapes, he attracts the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Fury wants to try to call the Raptors off via Edwards Air Force Base but after the Raptors got no response via radio contact they already fired on Iron Man. * Stark manages to escape from the Raptors by destroying one of them. He reveals to James Rhodes he is Iron Man. 18th * Prince T'Challa of Wakanda adopts the mantle of the "Black Panther" as his father, King T'Chaka, retires from the role. The Panther Habit armor is passed on from father to son. 24th * Under Stark's direction, Pepper uncovers proof of Obadiah Stane's collaboration with the Ten Rings. * Phil Coulson keeps his appointment to meet with Stark, but instead assists Pepper in finding the Iron Monger Armor. * Duel of Los Angeles: ** Stark and Stane eventually come to blows in their respective armors. ** Stane is killed by the detonation of Howard Stark's giant, industrial Arc Reactor. ** The conflict is seen by the public, and the press name the mysterious hero "Iron Man". * Shortly after the battle, Phil Coulson sends a fake ambulance to pick up Stark and James Rhodes, taking them to a S.H.I.E.L.D.complex in the local area. Coulson stresses to Stark how S.H.I.E.L.D. can teach him combat skills. 25th * At a press conference the day following his fight with Stane, Stark rejects S.H.I.E.L.D.’s constructed alibi and admits to the world that he is Iron Man. * Anton Vanko dies in poverty in Moscow. His son Ivan vows revenge on Tony Stark and builds his own portable Arc Reactor to power a body harness armed with energized electric whips. * Nick Fury contacts Phil Coulson and comments on the press conference hours ago, and tells him that he will visit Stark that night. Fury then gives him the mission to supervise the new agent Hendricks during his first mission. * Over 2 years after N'Taki began leading warriors to hold back the Congolese rebels' war, Prince T'Challa, in one of his early mission with the Panther Habit, helps the Border Tribe and the United Nations repelling the rebels from the North Kivu region, near the border with Wakanda. * Nick Fury approaches Stark about joining the "Avengers Initiative", but he declines. * Coulson comments to Hendricks about a new lead on the Ten Rings' illegal activities in close proximity to them. They go, but are ambushed by the Ten Rings' operatives. * Coulson is shot and nearly killed, forcing Hendricks to stand and save him. After he manages to defeat the Ten Rings' operatives, Coulson approaches and reveals to him that the whole mission was a test for him to see how he would act under pressure. Coulson congratulates and welcomes him into S.H.I.E.L.D.. * As Fury leaves Tony Stark's Mansion, he calls Coulson and tells him that they will need Natasha Romanoff. December 7th * Stark finally has the time to update his log again, making the entry for "Day 23", in which he recounts the Iron Man suit's performance in the Battle of Gulmira. 14th * Stark updates his log again, making the entry for "Day 30", recounting the Iron Man suit's performance in the Duel of Los Angeles. He decides he will have to work on the suit's delivery system. 16th * Iron Man is named Time magazine's Person of the Year 2009, beating out Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve. 18th * Nick Fury puts Phil Coulson in charge of Project T.A.H.I.T.I., an experiment in which the preserved corpse of the Kree that was recovered in 1945 is harvested of its bodily fluids for medicinal purposes. The goal of the project is to create a medicine that could potentially save a mortally wounded Avenger. 19th * Trying to have a serious relationship after the revelation that he is Iron Man, Stark starts a relationship with Lina. 28th * Knowing that she is dating Stark, the Ten Rings kidnaps Lina's son so as to blackmail her to obtain the blueprints from the Iron Man Armor. Lina tries to obtain the blueprints but J.A.R.V.I.S.stops her, as she manages to escape Stark locates and asks for an explanation. She explains the situation to him and Stark goes to rescue her son successfully.